ST. BARNABAS, APOSTLE

ST. BARNABAS, though not of the number of the
twelve chosen by Christ, is nevertheless styled an apostle by the
primitive fathers, and by St. Luke himself.1 His singular vocation by
the Holy Ghost, and the great share he had in the apostolic
transactions and labors, have obtained him this title. He was of the
tribe of Levi,2 but born in Cyprus, where his family was settled, and
had purchased an estate, which Levites might do out of their own
country. He was first called Joses, which was the softer Grecian
termination for Joseph. After the ascension of Christ, the apostles
changed his name into Barnabas, which word St. Luke interprets, Son
of Consolation, on account of his excellent talent of ministering
comfort to the afflicted, says St. Chrysostom. St. Jerom remarks that
this word also signifies the son of a prophet, and in that respect
was justly given to this apostle, who excelled in prophetic gifts.
The Greeks say that his parents sent him in his youth to Jerusalem,
to the school of the famous Gamaliel, St. Paul’s master; and
that he was one of the first, and chief of the seventy disciples of
Christ. Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, and St. Epiphanius,3 testify
that he was one of that number, and consequently had the happiness to
receive the precepts of eternal life from the mouth of Christ
himself. The first mention we find of him in holy scripture is in the
Acts of the Apostles,4 where it is related that the primitive
converts at Jerusalem lived in common, and that as many as were
owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price and laid
it at the feet of the apostles, that they might contribute all in
their power to relieve the indigent, and might themselves be entirely
disengaged from the world, and better fitted to follow Christ in a
penitential and mortified life. No one is mentioned in particular on
this occasion but St. Barnabas; doubtless because he was possessed of
a large estate; and perhaps he was the first who set the example of
this heroic contempt of the world, which has been since imitated by
so many thousands, according to the advice of Christ to the rich
man.5 This contribution was entirely free; but seems to have implied
a vow, or at least a solemn promise of renouncing all temporal
possessions for the sake of virtue. For Ananias and his wife Sapphira
were struck dead at the feet of St. Peter for having secreted some
part of the price; and were reproached by that apostle for having
lied to the Holy Ghost, by pretending to put a cheat upon the
ministers of God. Origen,6 St. Jerom,7 and St. Austin,8 are willing
to hope that their sin was forgiven them by repentance at the voice
of St. Peter, and that it was expiated by their temporal punishment.
Though St. Chrysostom9 and St. Basi110 rather fear that they might
perish eternally by impenitence. St. Austin, St. Jerom, St.
Chrysostom,11 St. Gregory the Great,12 and the other fathers accuse
them of a sacrilegious breach of their vow. St. Chrysostom,13 St.
Basi1,14 and St. Isidore of Pelusium,15 observe that God, by
executing his justice by visible judgments on the first authors of a
crime, does this to deter others from the like; as in the
Antediluvians, Sodomites, Pharaoh, Onan, and Giezi; but those who
nevertheless despise his warning, and by a more consummate malice
imitate such sinners, if they are not consumed by a deluge, fire, or
other visible judgment, must expect a more grievous chastisement in
the flames of hell, proportioned to their hardened malice.

Barnabas made his oblation perfect by the
dispositions of his heart with which he accompanied it, and by his
piety and zeal became considerable in the government of the church,
being a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, as he is styled
by the sacred penman.16 St. Paul coming to Jerusalem three years
after his conversion, and not easily getting admittance into the
church, because he had been a violent persecutor, addressed himself
to St. Barnabas as a leading man, and one who had personal knowledge
of him, who presently introduced him to the apostles Peter and James;
and such weight did his recommendation carry, that St. Peter received
the new convert into his house, and he abode with him fifteen days.17
About four or five years after this, certain disciples, probably
Lucius of Cyrene, Simeon, who was called Niger, and Manahen, having
preached the faith with great success at Antioch, some one of a
superior, and probably of the episcopal order was wanting to form the
church, and to confirm the Neophytes. Whereupon St. Barnabas was sent
from Jerusalem to settle this new plantation. Upon his arrival he
rejoiced exceedingly at the progress which the gospel had made,
exhorted the converts to fervor and perseverance, and by his
preaching made great additions to their number, insomuch that he
stood in need of an able assistant. St. Paul being then at Tarsus,
Barnabas took a journey thither and invited him to share in his
labors at Antioch. Such a field could not but give great joy to the
heart of St. Paul, who accompanied him back, and spent with him a
whole year. Their labors prospered, and the church was so much
increased at Antioch, that the name of Christians was first given to
the faithful in that city. In the eulogium which the Holy Ghost gives
to St. Barnabas, he is called a good man by way of eminence, to
express his extraordinary mildness, his simplicity void of all
disguise, his beneficence, piety, and charity. He is also styled full
of faith; which virtue not only enlightened his understanding with
the knowledge of heavenly truths, but also passed to his heart,
animated all his actions, inspired him with a lively hope and ardent
charity, and filled his breast with courage under his labors, and
with joy in the greatest persecutions and crosses. He is said to have
been full of the Holy Ghost, his heart being totally possessed by
that divine spirit, and all his affections animated by him; banishing
from them the spirit of the world with its vanities, that of the
devil with his pride and revenge, and that of the flesh with the love
of pleasure and the gratification of sense. So perfect a faith was
favored with an extraordinary gift of miracles, and prepared him for
the merits of the apostleship. By the daily persecutions and dangers
to which he exposed himself for the faith, his whole life was a
continued martyrdom. Whence the council of the apostles at Jerusalem
says of him and St. Paul: They have given their lives for the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ.18

Agabus, a prophet at Antioch, foretold a great
famine, which raged shortly after over the East, especially in
Palestine. Whereupon the church at Antioch raised a very considerable
collection for the relief of the poor brethren in Judæa, which
they sent by SS. Paul and Barnabas to the heads of the church at
Jerusalem. Josephus informs us that this famine lay heavy upon Judæa
during the four years’ government of Cuspius Fadus, and
Tiberius Alexander, under the emperor Claudius. John, surnamed Mark,
attended St. Barnabas back to Antioch. He was his kinsman, being son
to his sister Mary, whose house was the sanctuary where the apostles
concealed themselves from the persecutors, and enjoyed the
conveniency of celebrating the divine mysteries. The church of
Antioch was by that time settled in good order, and pretty well
supplied with teachers, among whom were Simeon, called Niger, Lucius
of Syrene, and Manahen, the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch,*
who were all prophets, besides our two apostles.19 As they were
ministering to the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Ghost said to them by
some of these prophets: “Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the
work whereunto I have taken them.” The word separate here
signifies being entirely set apart to divine functions, and taken
from all profane or worldly employments, as it is said of the
Levites,20 and of St. Paid.21 The work to which these two apostles
were assumed, was the conversion of the Gentile nations. The whole
church joined in prayer and fasting to draw down the blessing of
heaven on this undertaking; a model always to be imitated by those
who embrace an ecclesiastical state. After this preparation, SS. Paul
and Barnabas received the imposition of hands, by which some
understand the episcopal consecration. But Estius, Suarez, and
others, more probably think that they were bishops before, and that
by this rite is meant no more than the giving of a commission to
preach the gospel to the Gentile nations, by which they were
consecrated the Apostles of the Gentiles.

Paul and Barnabas having thus received their
mission, left Antioch, taking with them John Mark, and went to
Seleucia, a city of Syria adjoining to the sea; whence they set sail
for Cyprus, and arrived at Salamis, a port formerly of great resort.
Having there preached Christ in the synagogues of the Jews, they
proceeded to Paphos, a city in the same island, chiefly famous for a
temple of Venus, the tutelar goddess of the whole island. The
conversion of Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, happened there.
These apostles taking ship again at Paphos, sailed to Perge in
Pamphylia. Here John Mark, weary of the hardships and discouraged at
the dangers from obstinate Jews and idolaters, which everywhere
attended their laborious mission, to the great grief of his uncle
Barnabas, left them and returned to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas from
Perge travelled eighty miles northward to Antioch in Pisidia. There
they preached first in the synagogues of the Jews; but finding them
obstinately deaf to the happy tidings of salvation, they told them
that by preference they had announced first to them the words of
eternal life; but since they rejected that inestimable grace, they
would address the same to the Gentiles, as God had commanded by his
prophets. The exasperated Jews had interest enough to get them
expelled that city. The apostles went next to Iconium, the metropolis
of Lycaonia, and preached there some time; but at length the malice
of the Jews prevailed, and the apostles narrowly escaped being
stoned. They bent their course hence to Lystra in the same province,
in which city the idolaters, surprised to see a cripple miraculously
healed by St. Paul, declared the gods were come among them. They gave
to Paul the name of Mercury, because he was the chief speaker, and to
Barnabas that of Jupiter, probably on account of his gravity and the
comeliness of his person.† In this persuasion they were
preparing to offer sacrifices to them, and were with difficulty
diverted from it by the two saints. But soon after, at the malicious
instigation of the Jews, they passed to the opposite extreme and
stoned Paul. However, though left for dead, when the disciples came
(probably to inter his body) he rose up, went back into the city, and
the next day departed with Barnabas to Derbe. Hence, after numerous
conversions they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and the other cities
already mentioned, confirming the faithful in the doctrine they had
lately received, and ordaining priests in every church. They at
length arrived at Antioch in Syria, and continued with the disciples
of that city a considerable time, full of joy and thanksgiving for
the success of their ministry. During their abode in this city arose
the dispute relating to the necessity of observing the Mosaic rites.
St. Barnabas joined St. Paul in opposing some of the Jewish converts
who urged the necessity of observing them under the gospel. This
weighty question gave occasion to the council of the apostles at
Jerusalem held in the year 51, wherein SS. Paul and Barnabas gave a
full account of the success of their labors among the Gentiles, and
received a confirmation of their mission, and carried back the
synodal letter to the new converts of Syria and Cilicia, containing
the decision of the council, which has exempted the new converts from
any obligation on the foregoing head.

St. Barnabas gives used great example of humility
in his voluntary deference to St. Paul. He had been called first to
the faith, had first presented St. Paul to the apostles and passed
for first among the doctors of the church of Antioch; yet on every
occasion he readily yields to him the quality of speaker, and the
first place, which we must ascribe to his humility. Neither did St.
Paul seek any other pre-eminence than the first place in all labors.
At last a difference in opinion concerning Mark produced a
separation, without the least breach of charity in their hearts. John
Mark met them again at Antioch. St Paul proposed to our saint to make
a circular visit to the churches of Asia which they had founded.
Barnabas was for taking his kinsman Mark with him; but Paul was of a
different sentiment in regard to one who before had betrayed a want
of courage in the same undertaking. The Holy Ghost would by this
occasion separate the two apostles, that for the greater benefit of
the church the gospel might be carried into more countries. John Mark
by this check became so courageous and fervent, that he was from that
time one of the most useful and zealous preachers of the gospel. St.
Paul afterwards expressed a high esteem of him in his epistle to the
Colossians;21 and during his imprisonment at Rome, charged St.
Timothy to come to him, and to bring with him John Mark, calling him
a person useful for the ministry.22 John Mark finished the course of
his apostolic labors at Biblis in Phœnicia, and is mentioned in
the Roman Martyrology on the 27th of September. After this separation
St. Paul with Silas travelled into Syria and Cilicia, and Barnabas,
with his kinsman, betook himself to his native island, Cyprus. Here
the sacred writings dismiss his history.

St. Barnabas always remembered the conversion of
nations was the province allotted to him, nor could he be induced to
allow himself any repose, while he saw whole countries deprived of
the light of salvation. Theodoret says he returned again to St. Paul,
and was sent by him to Corinth with Titus. Dorotheus and the author
of the Recognitions suppose him to have been at Rome. The city of
Milan honors him as patron from a tradition, supported by monuments
which seem to be of the fourth age, affirming that he preached the
faith there, and was the founder of that church.* But how wide soever
his missions lay, he always regarded his own country as the province
especially allotted to his care; and there he finished his life by
martyrdom. Alexander, a monk of Cyprus in the sixth age, hath written
an account of his death, in which he relates that the faith having
made great progress in Cyprus by the assiduous preaching, edifying
example, and wonderful miracles of this apostle, it happened that
certain inveterate Jews who had persecuted the holy man in Syria,
came to Salamis and stirred up many powerful men of that city against
him. The saint was taken, roughly handled and insulted by the mob,
and after many torments stoned to death. The remains of St. Barnabas
were found near the city of Salamis, with a copy of the gospel of St.
Matthew, in Hebrew, laid upon his breast, written with St. Barnabas’s
own hand. The book was sent to the emperor Zeno in 485, as Theodorus
Lector relates.23 St. Paul mentions St. Barnabas as still living in
the year 56.24 St. Chrysostom speaks of him as alive in 63.25 He
seems to have attained to a great age.† St. Charles Borromeo,
in his sixth provincial council, in 1582, appointed his festival a
holiday of obligation. Nicholas Sormani, a priest of the Oblates,
maintains that he preached at Milan,26 and St. Charles Borromeo in a
sermon27 styles him the apostle of Milan.28

St. Barnabas, the more perfectly to disengage his
affections from all earthly things, set to the primitive church an
heroic example, by divesting himself of all his large possessions in
favor of the poor: riches are a gift of God to be received with
thankfulness, and to be well employed. But so difficult and dangerous
is their stewardship; so rare a grace is it for a man to possess them
and not find his affections entangled, and his heart wounded by them,
that many heroic souls have chosen, with St. Barnabas, to forsake all
things, the more easily to follow Christ in perfect nakedness of
heart. Those who are favored with them must employ them in good
offices, and in relieving the indigent, not dissipate them in luxury,
or make them the fuel of their passions: they must still dare to be
poor; must be disengaged in their affections; and must not be uneasy
or disturbed if their money takes its flight, being persuaded that
the loss of worldly treasures deprives them of nothing they can
properly call their own.